Recomp HQ Client Transformation: Ingrid Barclay

In one year Ingrid achieved her dream of stepping onstage, winning first place, in her best ever condition, still full of food, still eating carbohydrates, never doing a minute of aerobics, and so strong she won a string of Powerlifting titles & records on the lead in!

Ingrid Barclay Recomp

30.7% to 11.6% onstage in 12 months!

Ingrid Barclay is a highly respected, experienced body transformation Coach who got so caught up in her clients that she lost sight of herself! Realising that the contemporary approach to diet and training was not working for her, physically or emotionally, she came to Recomp HQ to do things a different way.

The first thing we did was get Ingrid’s training focus back onto the training itself. Training for Ingrid – like most people – was focussed entirely on the negative. We turned that around and got her to look at working towards measured, personal-best performances on every set of every workout. Giving every workout a positive purpose and turning training into a positive focus unto itself was the true key to Ingrid’s success.

At the same time, we changed Ingrid’s focus on food. Like so many people struggling with losing fat, Ingrid was not a glutton. The problem was that she didn’t eat enough! So we methodically built up her food intake. She was eating more and more yet she was losing fat, losing weight and getting stronger while building muscle. That’s the Recomp method!

Ingrid used Powerlifting competitions as motivation for short term training goals. Training and diet did not change for competitions; the competition was just a date to measure progress. And at every competition Ingrid blew away her previous competition result and went from competing to winning. Over 4 contests in 12 months her deadlift increased from 140kg to 200kg; an Australian Record!

Once Ingrid dropped to 18% she asked about the possibility of competing. Her father is unwell and she hoped he would have the opportunity to see her onstage.

For the WFF figure competitions, we continued to follow the same method of regular body composition tests to make incremental diet and training adjustments. Ingrid sailed into the contest, full of energy, full of strength, in her best ever condition to win her class in front of her proud and adoring father.

12 months ago I posted a photograph of a girl called “Brooke”, and I asked a controversial question…..would you trust her as your competition coach? 45% of you said yes absolutely, if she knew her stuff, the fact that she was very overweight would not bother them. The other 55% said absolutely not and reasons varied from: “she clearly doesn’t know how to look after herself”, to “she’s fat”, to “I wouldn’t trust that she knows too much about fat loss”. Well, that photograph of Brooke……was me.Fortunately FIO didn’t seem to lose any followers and some of the girls who said “no they would not trust her as a coach” have religiously followed my posts over the past 12 months so again, my number 1 message tonight on this post is that how someone looks does not dictate how good they are at coaching, and getting to bring the best out in YOU. I have to admit, I think by memory I cried my heart out for a day and was upset for a couple of days. I wanted to scream “but I have the knowledge. And I am really good at several aspects of coaching, and I am successful”. You know, I really wanted to defend myself. And no, it was not a driving force to change, I cannot claim that. The only person that drove me to prioritise myself was me. One of my good friends Kylie Mitcham said “what did you expect Ingrid – you would have known some people are going to be judgemental?” and she made me pull my head in and get on with things – so thank you Kylie for your always wise words. You often ground me.

A word on my ‘before’ photo: Message Number 2. Results has very little to do with information. It has everything to with implementation. At the time this photo was taken a) I was not prioritisng myself, but rather Body Conquest and its clients and b) I just couldn’t implement what I was supposed to do (anyone relate????)

This is such a huge issue–something that all of us in this industry, either professionals or fitness enthusiasts have grappled with: Why can’t I just do what I know to do??? It can be frustrating. It can be disheartening. It can make us feel like a fraud. Like we’re weak and out of our integrity. But it’s also a reminder that just because you know something doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily implement consistently. I had to change my priority and my mind-set. And so I did.For those of you who have followed my journey for the last 12 months since I signed on to do recomp, what a BIG Saturday I had last weekend. Huge. My last posing session with my wonderful posing coach Irene Nikole. A catch up with my coach Damon Hayhow whom I hadn’t seen in 7 weeks, and my first ever photo-shoot with my lovely boyfriend Ji Cottrill. So the stats and results I hear some of you ask….ok here it is. Starting weight: 86.5BF: 30.7%End Weight: 74.5BF: 13%